Activist from Syracuse's Tipp Hill wins national award

Nicholas Lisi / The Post-Standard
File photo. In February, Peter Coleman (left) waves to the crowd as he walks with parade Grand Marshall Janice McKenna (center), and Cogressman Dan Maffei (right) in the annual Coleman's St. Patrick's parade on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse.
The rowhouses that line Burnet Park Drive are the most dramatic evidence of progress on Tipperary Hill, Janice McKenna says.

But McKenna, who helped bring about change in the neighborhood where she lives and works, feels best about a less tangible improvement.

"I think there's a greater sense of community now," she says.

She can send out an e-mail to 250 households, filled with maybe a thousand people and get results.

"People respond. People feel really a part of what’s happening here," said McKenna, who heads the Tipperary Hill Neighborhood Association, which she helped form.

For her work in the neighborhood, McKenna will travel to Washington, D.C., to receive an award Dec. 10 from NeighborWorks America, a national organization that promotes home ownership and affordable rental housing. McKenna is one of eight people in the country to receive the Dorothy Richardson award.

Home HeadQuarters, a nonprofit housing agency that built the rowhouses, nominated McKenna.

"We were really looking at people that make a difference in their neighborhoods. I think about the impact she has had. And you've got a lot of strong players in that neighborhood, Peter Coleman among them," said Karen Schroeder, marketing and resource development manager for Home HeadQuarters.

Coleman is a businessman who owns the landmark Coleman's Authentic Irish Pub. McKenna said the neighborhood revitalization is rooted in a vision Coleman had in 2000. He came to her business, Warne/McKenna Advertising, literally to sketch out that vision of what Tipp Hill could become.

That vision eventually blossomed into a $1.8 million grant from former Congressman James Walsh's Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative program, McKenna said.

The money helped pay to clean up Burnet Park Drive and build the rowhouses, in partnership with Home HeadQuarters. There was money for Home HeadQuarters to buy and rehabilitate some 20 houses, she said. And there was money for homeowners to beautify their properties, too.

"Our major focus was Burnet Park Drive. What was wonderful about this whole experience was that it was neighborhood-driven," McKenna said.

In 2001, the neighborhood association was born out of the initiative. Among its accomplishments is the Shamrock Run, which draws more runners every year. It also supports the Tipp Hill Music Festival and other neighborhood projects.

As an award winner, McKenna recently traveled to a NeighborWorks leadership institute in Milwaukee.

"It's great to hear what people around the country are doing to improve their neighborhoods, she said. "You can't wait to get home to do more."

Metro news of note

The Henninger High School basketball court has been named in honor of the man
who coached the varsity team for 15 seasons and who was a beloved administrator at the school. The school board made the school’s wishes official last week — it voted to name the court after the late Joe Mazella, He died in September at age 51.

He was an assistant principal and had worked at Henninger since 1983. In March 2002, he brought home the first Class A state public school championship ever won by a team from Section III’s large school division.

A reminder - There’s an effort afoot to bring a grocery store to the South Side. Jubilee homes will hold an informational meeting about the effort from 6 to 7 p.m. today at the Southwest Community Center, 401 South Ave.